Bedbug infestations can occur at any time, but experts say its wise to be extra wary of the critters during peak travel times like summer, for instance. Hiding in cracks and crevices, the bugs are good hitchhikers and could latch onto luggage and other belongings.

Theyre not discriminating travelers, said Jim Fredericks, chief entomologist for the National Pest Management Association. They dont discriminate between a first-class resort or a low-rate motel. You could encounter them anywhere.

According to research conducted in 2015 by the NPMA and the University of Kentucky, 74 percent of surveyed pest-control professionals said theyd encountered bedbugs in hotels and motels within the past year. Although this number is second to apartments, condominiums and single-family homes 90 percent of the professionals said they had found bedbugs in these places its still pretty high.

[Howd the bedbug get its bite? Scientists look to its genome for clues.]

Its not just hotels, for sure, Fredericks added. Its hotels, vacation cottages, summer rentals at the beach, Airbnbs, even a visit to a relatives house.

Luckily, there are a number of ways to avoid letting the little bloodsuckers become an unfortunate vacation souvenir.

Inspect your hotel room. Before settling in, its worth doing a quick scan of the bed and any couches or armchairs. Look at the folds and seams of the mattress, Fredericks recommended, as little dark stains could be a sign of an infestation. If its a pretty bad case, you might even be able to see the bugs castaway shells or pearly white eggs.

Look closely at wooden headboards. Although bedbugs are typically associated with clinging to fabric, they can use their claws to grip and climb bed frames as well. Take a peek behind the headboard if possible, as the critters often hide in cracks, according to Michael Potter, an entomology professor at the University of Kentucky.

The problem is that headboards in many hotels are often quite heavy, Potter said.

Be careful while peeking, though, or you might end up like Brooke Borel, a science journalist and the author of Infested: How the Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World.

In one place, I actually took the headboard off the wall, she said, laughing.

Know what bedbugs look like. Borel has dealt with three infestations in her time living in New York. Its important to be able to identify the bugs, she said, so you can notify the hotel immediately if you spot them.

This isnt necessarily fun, but if you find a bug in your bed, pick it up and put it in a plastic bag or one of those glasses they have in your hotel room, she said. Keep it there so you can have proof that there were bedbugs in the room.

Adult bedbugs are reddish-brown and about a quarter-inch in length, Fredericks said, while the younger ones are smaller and often have a creamy coloration.

Theyre crawling pests, he added. If you see them jumping or flying, its definitely not a bedbug.

Keep your suitcase off the floor. Although either multiple bedbugs or a mated female would need to stow away to bring an infestation home, its worth taking precautions, according to Kenneth Haynes, another entomology professor at the University of Kentucky.

Its all a probability matter, Haynes said, and you can bias that probability toward avoiding bringing them home by doing those inspections initially.

Borel knows people who avoid picking up the pests by leaving suitcases in the bathtub instead of the main hotel room. Potter said this might be a bit much.

Traveling is enough of a hassle without all that, he said. Anything is possible in the world of bedbugs, but everyone has to make a decision about just how obsessive they want to be.

Unpack immediately. Bedbugs dont typically live on a persons body They bite people, and then they leave, Fredericks said but they can easily cling to your clothes or the fabric of a suitcase. If you think you might have brought back a few unwanted guests, the best thing to do is expose the surfaces to heat. High heat in the dryer for 30 minutes or so will kill all life stages, Fredericks said.

As for the suitcase? There are luggage heaters invented for this specific purpose, Borel said, though it might be silly to spend big bucks on those. In the summer, theres a simpler solution.

When its really hot outside, put that thing in a closed car for a day or two, Potter said. The [temperature] that a car will heat up to in the summertime if its 80 degrees outside will probably be enough to kill bedbugs in a suitcase.

Keep calm and declutter. After her extensive experience dealing with infestations, Borel knows the critters can be quite taxing on mental health. Reduce clutter to avoid giving them a place to hide, but if you think they might have found a way in, remember that outside help exists.

We see and hear horror stories in the news about people that tried to control bedbugs in their home and things went horribly wrong, Fredericks said. We encourage people to reach out to a professional.

A new state law designed to battle bedbugs requires California landlords to provide tenants with written information about these blood-sucking, tenacious pests and how to report suspected infestations to the landlord.

The disclosure requirement took effect for new tenants July 1 and will apply to existing tenants Jan. 1.

The law also prevents landlords from showing or renting a vacant unit with an active infestation, and from retaliating against tenants who report bedbug problems. It does not require them to inspect rental units for bedbugs if they have not seen them or received a tenant complaint. But it does require them to notify tenants within two days of a pest inspectors findings. It also requires tenants to cooperate with the detection and treatment of bedbugs.

The law does not say what landlords must do when tenants complain. In California, however, residential leases have an implied warranty of habitability that requires landlords to maintain rental units in a condition fit for humans. That includes keeping it free of rodents and vermin, said Whitney Prout, a staff attorney with the California Apartment Association, which represents landlords.

Why bedbugs have their own law is that they are a harder pest to treat, Prout said. It requires early detection and integrated pest management between the landlord and tenant, because of how pervasively they can take over.

Bedbugs feed on blood, mostly human and usually at night. Adults are the size, shape and color of an apple seed. Eggs are the size, shape and color of a sesame seed, said Tami Stuparich, a vice president with California American Exterminator Co.

A baby bug, called a nymph, looks like an adult, but is pinhead-size and lighter in color. They turn reddish and elongated after a meal. Nymphs shed their exoskeleton five times before they become a breeding adult.

Unlike lice, bedbugs dont stay on people; they eat and run. Nor do they jump like fleas or fly. They can crawl or be carried from place to place on objects or people. Bringing in furniture from the street is a good way to get them. Because they are flat, they can hide and travel in cracks and crevices. (See article on one couples bedbug saga in San Francisco.)

They can move easily from unit to unit, and unless all affected units are treated together, theyll come back. Most places require more than one treatment.

Telltale signs include small red or brown fecal spots, molted skins, white, sticky eggs or empty eggshells. They are often found on mattresses, box springs, headboards, nightstands, linens, upholstery, walls and carpet edges.

Bedbugs do not carry disease, but some victims develop itchy red welts that could be mistaken for mosquito or flea bites. Others have no reaction, which makes them even harder to detect until theyre rampant.

Jennifer Brass found bedbugs in her San Francisco apartment in 2010. Their bites were extremely itchy and they lasted for a very long time in a very intensive way, she said. I still consider it one of the worst experiences of my life, more uncomfortable than childbirth without medication, said Brass, now a professor at Indiana State University.

Bedbugs were common in the United States before World War II, but essentially vanished in the 1940s and 1950s, thanks to DDT and other potent, long-lasting pesticides that could be bought over the counter, said University of Kentucky entomologist Michael Potter.

They persisted elsewhere in the world, and decades after those pesticides were banned, made a comeback here. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, they started appearing in big-city hotels, stowing away in the clothes and luggage of international travelers. They soon spread to homes, offices, schools, libraries, anywhere they can find a meal.

They dont care about filth, like a cockroach. They feed on us, Stuparich said. Equal opportunity diners, they show up in single-room occupancy hotels and posh apartments.

Los Angeles ranked fourth and San Francisco ranked 10th on a list of U.S. cities where Orkin, a pest control company, performed the most bedbug treatments last year.

San Francisco has had a bedbug ordinance since 2012 that, in some ways, goes beyond what the state law requires.

If a prospective tenant asks about bedbugs, the landlord must disclose in writing the unit’s bedbug infestation and abatement history, or lack thereof, for the previous two years.

Within two days of getting a bedbug complaint, the property owner or manager must hire a licensed pest control operator to investigate that unit and the ones above, below, next door and across the hall.

Its one of the few pests where we dont want any kind of do-it-yourselfer dealing with it, said Larry Kessler, principal health inspector with the citys Department of Public Health.

The San Francisco ordinance requires landlords to make available to tenants information on the signs and symptoms of bedbugs. Under the new state law, they will have to provide it. Many landlords have voluntarily included in lease agreements a bedbug addendum put out by the San Francisco Apartment Association. The California association has published a similar addendum for member use that complies with state law.

There are various ways to kill bedbugs. The lowest level is treating the affected areas with steam or pesticides, said Darren Van Steenwyk, technical director with Clark Pest Control. Another option is heating an entire room, apartment or house up to lethal temperature. Extreme cases might require tenting the building and fumigating.

The cost of each treatment depends on the labor involved but can range from hundreds to many thousands of dollars, Van Steenwyk said.

William Meyer, whose company WM Properties manages apartments in San Francisco, had to treat about 10 units in two buildings, one on Nob Hill, a couple of years ago. The cost was about $1,000 per unit. Some required up to six visits over six months.

Tenants are often required to vacuum thoroughly; put their clothes, linens and stuffed animals in the washer or dryer on the highest heat possible and store other belongings in airtight containers for extended periods.

State law requires landlords to repair, at their expense, damage or problems that compromise habitability, unless they can prove that it was the tenants fault.

We find that landlords claim they are not responsible, for bedbugs, said Deepa Varma, executive director of the San Francisco Tenants Union. In multifamily dwellings, its almost impossible to prove it was the tenants who brought in the bedbugs. Because of that, generally speaking, landlords are not able to pass those costs on to tenants if tenants know their rights and fight back.

Tenants in San Francisco who think their landlords are not cooperating should contact the health department. We will make sure the landlord does what is necessary, Kessler said.

Since 2012, the department has received 1,079 complaints about bedbugs in apartments and 1,104 about hotels, including single-room occupancy hotels.

Prout, of the California Apartment Association, said that if a bedbug issue comes up and there is a dispute as to whose fault it was, our recommendation (to landlords) is to treat first and deal with the issue of who is responsible later.

The question of who is at fault is one reason neither the state nor city bedbug laws will stop the spread of bedbugs, Potter said.

The holy grail of bedbug management is proactive inspection, he said. If you rely on tenants, you can have have ticking time bombs. People dont want to report them; theyre afraid of reprisal or having to pay for eradication.

New York City requires landlords to pay for bedbug extermination, Potter said, but no city or state requires them to do periodic inspections. If you are going on a complaint-based way of dealing with bedbugs, thats how we get into these horrific problems, Potter said. Some tenant has the mother lode, never reports them, and they disperse throughout the building.

The New York City of the Marvel universe is teeming with heroes, being home to everyone from Steve Rogers to Peter Parker. With four of those famous New Yorkers teaming up on the small screen in The Defenders, we decided to rank the finest inhabitants of the comic book Big Apple.

Given the vast number of heroes that operate on Earth-616’s NYC and we mean vast, we’re talking hundreds, if not thousands we decided to lay some ground rules before forming our final list. First, these heroes have to spend the majority of their superhero careers actively in New York City. It isn’t just that they live there, or have their headquarters there, but they actively fight bad guys there, instead of flinging their way around the world like the Avengers do. Second, they operate within the five boroughs of the city: Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island, which rules out Kamala Khan in New Jersey (let’s be honest, she’d probably be pissed a being called a New Yorker), and the X-Men, whose mansion up until recently was based in Westchester, outside of the city.

So, without further ado, a comprehensive ranking on the best heroes swinging around in Marvel’s NYC, based on the very scientific notion of New-Yorkiness.

There is literally nothing more New York than a clan of misfits with strange abilities who find their chosen family after being rejected by the dominant culture and build their own society in the dark, dark tunnels of the MTA subway system. There are people who ride the subway because they have to, and then there are the Morlocks who are the the subway not in form, but rather concept. They’re scrappy and downtrodden and broken, but also powerful and a reflection of both the good and the evil of the harsh world that lives above them.

The New Warriors’ most infamous moment might have occured outside of the five boroughs that time their reality TV show lead to hundreds of lives being lost and the start of the superhero Civil War in Stamford, Conneticut but for much of its time actively crimefighting, the team called Brooklyn and Manhattan their home, supporting the myriad other heroes who called the city home. Being known for blowing up part of another town dings your New York cred a bit though.

In-between bouts of being dead or being insane, Marc Spector has spent most of his second career in crimefighting on the streets of New York as Moon Knight (with some stints in LA for the West Coast Avengers) since settling down after a career as a mercenary. In fact, Spector built multiple personas, from a high-rising Manhattanite financier to a lowly cab driver, to help him fight crime on the streets of the city. So you might argue that he’s almost three times the New Yorker than everyone else! But that’s not how it works.

For the vast majority of their careers as heroes, the Fantastic Four lived in the Baxter Building, a gargantuan sky scraper ever-so-conveniently located on the corner of 42nd Street and Madison Avenue. The Foursome are “New Yorkers” in a sense that they own(ed) a ridiculously expensive piece of real estate that was more a statement about who they were as opposed to what they could do for the city. Add that to the fact that they spend almost as much time in outer space messing around with Galactus as they do actually enjoying all that NYC has to offer, they’re sort of low on the list. To their credit, though, they are responsible for having saved the world (and city by extension) more than a few times. Then again, who hasn’t?

Clint Barton’s early life might have been spent in a travelling circus, but once he quit that, joined the costumed villain game, quit that, and then joined the costumed heroes game (it’s a long story), Clint’s made a home for himself in and around NYC while working alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Hell, in the excellent Matt Fraction/David Aja Hawkeye comic series, he even bought out his own apartment building to maintain rent levels for all the residents, so he’s technically a New York landlord who just also happens to be very good with a bow.

Silk is relatively new on the hero scene, having been introduced in the pages of Spider-Verse a few years ago as the alias of Cindy Moon, the other person bitten by Peter Parker’s radioactive spider. But she’s a life-long New Yorker. Outside of some parallel world Spider-adventures, Cindy hasn’t really left the city… although part of that is because she spent 13 years of her young life locked up in a bunker in Times Square, being protected from a race of interdimensional, Spider-Person-eating vampire monsters. In fact, it’s kind of impressive she managed to stay in the city and come to terms with her trauma over being trapped there after being freed.

There is no character in Marvel’s comics who better embodies the complicated, dark, and at-times terrifying id of New York City than Frank Castle. To flat out call the Punisher a hero, villain or anti-hero is to misunderstand just what it is to be a person devastated by a loss so profound that their world falls apart on a fundamental level. Frank’s approach to justice is a dangerous and threatening one (even with his code), but at the same time, his feelings are understandable in undeniable ways. Frank is, quite literally, the product of what one very, very bad day in NYC can do to a person, which makes him both a tragic figure and a proof that even at a person’s lowest lows, there’s always a way to hang on.

Danny Rand’s spent a lot of time outside of NY thanks to years of training to become the Immortal Iron Fist in the magical city of K’un Lun. But when he isn’t in the mystical world of living weapons and ancient dragons, he’s best known as one of Marvel’s premiere street-level heroes, both in the Defenders and as a Hero for Hire alongside his best friend, Luke Cage, keeping the streets of New York safe with his magical martial arts. Also, he runs a dojo.

At this point a lot of Spider-People call New York home, but Jessica Drew has lived in the city as both a costumed superhero and a private investigator, after the early days of her career saw her globe-trot across Europe and eventually move to San Francisco. Since then, though, Manhattan has been Jess’ home through thick and thin, from crime-fighting base to the hectic city where she’s currently raising her newborn son.

As Miles Morales has adjusted to his new life in Marvel’s primary comic book universe where Peter Parker is still alive, he’s proven that in many ways, he is the modern personification of all the things that Spider-Man once represented in his younger years. As Peter Parker’s grown up, gotten married, and had a kid (in certain continuities), Spider-Man’s trials and tribulations have gradually become textured by his adulthood and rightfully so. What Miles brings to the table, though, is a fresh take on the youthful wonder and heroism that Spider-Man always stood for, now updated to speak to a broader, more diverse audience like the melting pot that is the city he lives in.

It isn’t just that Miles is Afro-Puerto Rican himself, it’s that the world he lives in his friends, family and surroundings is objectively more expansive and inclusive than Peter’s was when he was Miles’ age, and there’s an importance to that that can’t be understated. Also, Miles’ powers and costumes are cooler.

Patsy Walker may be responsible for having brought literal demons from Hell to New York on more than one occasion, but honestly, the demons are the only people she should be apologising to. Patsy’s spent her fair share of time living in a couple of the city’s boroughs, but in her most recent series, she really made a point of living like a real New Yorker (albeit in Brooklyn). The things that made Hellcat! AKA Patsy Walker such a fun series to read weren’t just Patsy’s kooky, kick-arse shenanigans, but the way that she lived her civilian life searching for a roommate, hanging out with friends, flirting with guys all while taking full advantage of the city. Also, you’ve got to hand it to her for having a villain whose primary power was to summon bed bugs as part of her odd rogue’s gallery.

Misty Knight is the kind of NYPD officer that you want to show up when you need help. Not just because she has a badarse vibranium arm, but because her sense of justice has been forged and tempered by her experience as a full-on superhero. Most city cops that you meet have a deep and abiding love for their cities and Misty does as well, but her perspective and understanding is immeasurably more expansive because of the life she’s led away from the force.

Although the movies have recast Steve as a Brooklyn boy, in the comics, he grew up in Manhattan and although technically a good chuck of his life after becoming Captain America during the war saw him living outside the city (as a block of ice in the North Atlantic), when he returned to help found the Avengers, Steve found himself back in his beloved city soon enough, helping establish the team’s first headquarters right on Fifth Avenue. His time as an Avenger has seen Steve travel the world, but as the superpowered face of American liberty, his heart will always been in New York.

Shame about the fascism, though. Points off for that.

Janet van Dyne doesn’t get enough credit for the role that she played in helping the original Avengers become the team that they are today. Sure, Janet’s the one who came up with their name, but more importantly, she was the moral centre of the team who helped it weather all manner of challenges that plagued them, be an attack from Ultron or a family dispute from within the team. Even as her fellow Avengers dart all over the world, Janet still remains rooted in the city where it all began, starting her own business and now looking after the next generation of the Wasp in the form of budding young scientist Nadia Pym.

Cloak and Dagger’s destinies were forged in New York, when the two runaways found each other and went through hell being forcefully put through a dangerous drug program that turned them into dark-and-light-powered superheroes. Since then, they have fought back against city’s illegal drug industry that gave them their powers, and otherwise teamed up with countless other heroes and teams in New York. This includes during Manhattan’s recent entrapment in the Darkforce Dimension in Secret Empire, throughout which Dagger painfully provided light to the city at the cost of nearly killing herself.

Sam Wilson grew up in Harlem, and a tragic upbringing in the borough that saw him lose both of his parents as a young man set him on a path that would ultimately see him collide with Steve Rogers and become his erstwhile companion, the Falcon. Years by Steve’s side ultimately lead Sam to take on the Captain America mantle himself granted by an ailing, super-serum-drained Steve after Sam nearly sacrificed himself saving New York from being destroyed by a bomb. Sam decided to differentiate himself from Steve’s career as Cap by being a more socially-minded hero, starting in his home city.

Jessica Jones always knew that being superhero was for the birds and, like her partner Luke Cage, understood the importance of being able to capitalise on her god-given skills in order to pay her bills. As a private detective, Jessica’s used her powers to help the people of New York in immediate, appreciable ways that other heroes seldom do, and that’s a very big deal.

Sure, the folks up in Avengers Tower have saved the world countless times, but there comes a point at which the adventures of heroes kind of lose their meaning for regular people on the ground. If you asked a random person on the subway in Marvel’s 616 universe who Ultron was, there’s a chance they might be aware of “that robot the Avengers are always scrapping with”. But if you were to check out Alias Investigation’s Yelp page, you’d probably see countless posts from people who were once in desperate need of help that neither the authorities or most well-known capes bothered to take seriously. That’s what makes Jessica a hero in the truest sense of the word.

Let’s say one day you suddenly developed superpowers after a freak chemical spill and decided to become a superhero. Let’s say that rather than spending time learning how to control your newfound ability to lift incredible amounts of weight with your breath, you threw yourself into the fray, stopped a bunch of criminals, and accidentally caused millions of dollars in property damage that the city council decides to sue you for. You know who’d have your back in court and probably be able to convince a jury to let you off with a warning and some community service? She-Hulk, that’s who. For all of the good that Jennifer Walters has done as hero fighting alongside the Avengers, it’s her work as an NYC lawyer that really makes her stand out as one of Marvel’s most versatile and giving heroes.

Howard the Duck is every single oddball you’ve ever bumped into in New York, made eye contact with, and had an immediate and tacit understanding that you’re both going through some shit. As a character, Howard’s whole schtick has always been about pulling back from the present events of one’s life and taking the time to appreciate how incredibly weird life can be. It’s an outlook on life that we could all stand to have more often than not and it makes him one of NYC’s better, uh, duck… people… things.

Hell’s Kitchen’s perennial defender, Matt Murdock and his home neighbourhood are deeply intertwined in a way so few other heroes can claim. They can say they protect a city, but Hell’s Kitchen is Daredevil’s turf, and the Marvelverse knows it. Sure, he’s taken extended periods of time away from the city, most notably to live in San Francisco a few times, but eventually, Matt Murdock always returns to Hell’s Kitchen, whether it’s as a lawyer or as the man without fear.

Up until very recently, the entirety of New York City was trapped in the Darkforce dimension thanks to Hydra’s evil plan to divide and conquer the world’s heroes. Though there were many sacrifices made in an attempt to break through the Darkforce bubble and save millions of innocent people, none was quite as great as Dr Stephen Strange offering to trade his New York brownstone to a demon in exchange for a powerful spell that almost managed to break through the barrier. Ultimately, it didn’t work out and Strange kept his home, but his willingness to part with it in the first place is telling. Like many of Marvel’s other heavy hitters, Strange spends a sizeable amount of time away from NYC as his duties require him to, but Strange’s appreciation for the city, its people and its real estate is admirable.

Remember when we said few heroes were so closely rooted to their home area like Daredevil is? Luke Cage is one of the few heroes who not only matches Matt, but trumps him. Luke’s connection to Harlem and its people, starting from his life as an ex-con trying to blend in to its protector as the Power Man, is a bond that’s even stronger than his friendship with his fellow hero for hire, Danny Rand. In the Marvel universe, Luke is a symbol of Harlem’s spirit, a man who’s willing to do anything to help its people, a community he has always been fiercely protective of.

It’s hard to think of a more quintessentially New York hero than Peter Parker. From his early days in Forest Hills to today, where he runs his global megacorp from the Baxter Building itself, Peter Parker is rooted in the beating heart of New York City in a way almost no one else in Marvel’s vast pantheon of heroes ever has been, or really, ever will be someone who knows it in and out like the back of his spandex-covered hand. In his entire superhero career he’s barely ever lived outside of the city, and his goal as a hero has always been to protect the civilians that call it home. Spider-Man is far more comfortable on the streets of New York than he is in any other environment, even if he’s mostly swinging above them but he will always be New York’s finest champion.

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An update today from BioWare confirmed that Mass Effect. Andromeda will indeed not be getting any new content. Kotaku reported as much back in late June, when sources familiar with BioWare’s plans said that Andromeda would receive no single-player DLC, a huge departure from every previous game in the series.

Update #1. That was quick. According to Microsoft Australia’s online store, the Xbox One X ‘Project Scorpio’ is already out of stock.

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The cities were ranked based on treatment data from the metro areas where Orkin performed the most bedbug treatments from December1, 2015, to November30, 2016.

We have more people affected by bed bugs in the United States now than ever before, Orkin entomologist and director of technical services Ron Harrison said. They were virtually unheard of in the U.S. 10 years ago.

Orkin calls bed bugs hitchhikers thattravel from place to place.

Orkin officials think bedbugs have become prevalent because theyve built up a resistance to chemicals.

They also said you might not know you have bed bugs because many people dont have a physical reaction to the insects bites.

The New York City of the Marvel universe is teeming with heroes, being home to everyone from Steve Rogers to Peter Parker. With four of those famous New Yorkers teaming up on the small screen today in The Defenders, we decided to rank the finest inhabits of the comic book Big Apple.

Given the vast number of heroes that operate on Earth-616’s NYCand we mean vast, were talking hundreds, if not thousandswe decided to lay some ground rules before forming our final list. First, these heroes have to spend the majority of their superhero careers actively in New York City. Its not just that they live there, or have their headquarters there, but they actively fight bad guys there, instead of flinging their way around the world like the Avengers do. Second, they operate within the five boroughs of the city: Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, which rules out Kamala Khan in New Jersey (lets be honest, shed probably be pissed a being called a New Yorker), and the X-Men, whose mansion up until recently was based in Westchester, outside of the city.

So, without further ado, a comprehensive ranking on the best heroes swinging around in Marvels NYC, based on the very scientific notion of New-Yorkiness.

There is literally nothing more New York than a clan of misfits with strange abilities who find their chosen family after being rejected by the dominant culture and building their own society in the dark, dark tunnels of the MTA subway system. There are people who ride the subway because they have to, and then there are the Morlocks who are the the subwaynot in form, but rather concept. Theyre scrappy and downtrodden and broken, but also powerful and a reflection of both the good and the evil of the harsh world that lives above them.

The New Warriors most infamous moment might have occured outside of the five boroughsthat time their reality TV show lead to hundreds of lives being lost and the start of the superhero Civil Warin Stamford, Conneticutbut for much of its time actively crimefighting, the team called Brooklyn and Manhattan their home, supporting the myriad other heroes who called the city home. Being known for blowing up part of another town dings your New York cred a bit though.

In-between bouts of being dead or being insane, Marc Spector has spent most of his second career in crimefighting on the streets of New York as Moon Knight (with some stints in LA for the West Coast Avengers) since settling down after a career as a mercenary. In fact, Spector built multiple personas, from a high-rising Manhattanite financier to a lowly cab driver, to help him fight crime on the streets of the city. So you might argue that hes almost three times the New Yorker than everyone else! But thats not how it works.

For the vast majority of their careers as heroes, the Fantastic Four lived in the Baxter Building, a gargantuan sky scraper ever-so-conveniently located on the corner of 42nd Street and Madison Avenue. The Foursome are New Yorkers in a sense that they own(ed) a ridiculously expensive piece of real estate that was more a statement about who they were as opposed to what they could do for the city. Add that to the fact that they spend almost as much time in outer space messing around with Galactus as they do actually enjoying all that NYC has to offer, theyre sort of low on the list. To their credit, though, they are responsible for having saved the world (and city by extension) more than a few times. Then again, who hasnt?

Clint Bartons early life might have been spent in a traveling circus, but once he quit that, joined the costumed villain game, quit that, and then joined the costumed heroes game (its a long story), Clints made a home for himself in and around NYC while working alongside Earths Mightiest Heroes. Hell, in the excellent Matt Fraction/David Aja Hawkeye comic series, he even bought out his own apartment building to maintain rent levels for all the residents, so hes technically a New York landlord who just also happens to be very good with a bow.

Silk is relatively new on the hero scene, having been introduced in the pages of Spider-Verse a few years ago as the alias of Cindy Moon, the other person bitten by Peter Parkers radioactive spider. But shes a life-long New Yorker. Outside of some parallel world Spider-adventures, Cindy hasnt really left the city… although part of that is because she spent 13 years of her young life locked up in a bunker in Times Square, being protected from a race of interdimensional, Spider-Person-eating vampire monsters. In fact, its kind of impressive she managed to stay in the city and come to terms with her trauma over being trapped there after being freed.

There is no character in Marvels comics who better embodies the complicated, dark, and at-times terrifying id of New York City than Frank Castle. To flat out call the Punisher a hero, villain, or anti-hero is to misunderstand just what it is to be a person devastated by a loss so profound that their world falls apart on a fundamental level. Franks approach to justice is a dangerous and threatening one (even with his code), but at the same time, his feelings are understandable in undeniable ways. Frank is, quite literally, the product of what one very, very bad day in NYC can do to a person, which makes him both a tragic figure and a proof that even at a persons lowest lows, theres always a way to hang on.

Danny Rands spent a lot of time outside of NY thanks to years of training to become the Immortal Iron Fist in the magical city of Kun Lun. But when hes not in the mystical world of living weapons and ancient dragons, hes best known as one of Marvels premiere street-level heroes, both in the Defenders and as a Hero for Hire alongside his best friend, Luke Cage, keeping the streets of New York safe with his magical martial arts. Also, he runs a dojo.

At this point a lot of Spider-People call New York home, but Jessica Drew has lived in the city as both a costumed superhero and a private investigator, after the early days of her career saw her globe-trot across Europe and eventually move to San Francisco. Since then, though, Manhattan has been Jess home through thick and thin, from crime-fighting base to the hectic city where shes currently raising her newborn son.

As Miles Morales has adjusted to his new life in Marvels primary comic book universe where Peter Parker is still alive, hes proven that in many ways, he is the modern personification of all the things that Spider-Man once represented in his younger years. As Peter Parkers grown up, gotten married, and had a kid (in certain continuities), Spider-Mans trials and tribulations have gradually become textured by his adulthood and rightfully so. What Miles brings to the table, though, is a fresh take on the youthful wonder and heroism that Spider-Man always stood for, now updated to speak to a broader, more diverse audience like the melting pot that is the city he lives in.

It isnt just that Miles is Afro-Puerto Rican himself, its that the world he lives inhis friends, family, and surroundingsis objectively more expansive and inclusive than Peters was when he was Miles age, and theres an importance to that that cant be understated. Also, Miles powers and costumes are cooler.

Patsy Walker may be responsible for having brought literal demons from hell to New York on more than one occasion, but honestly, the demons are the only people she should be apologizing to. Patsys spent her fair share of time living in a couple of the citys boroughs, but in her most recent series, she really made a point of living like a real New Yorker (albeit in Brooklyn). The things that made Hellcat! A.k.a. Patsy Walker such a fun series to read werent just Patsys kooky, kick-ass shenanigans, but the way that she lived her civilian lifesearching for a roommate, hanging out with friends, flirting with guysall while taking full advantage of the city. Also, youve got to hand it to her for having a villain whose primary power was to summon bed bugs as part of her odd rogues gallery.

Misty Knight is the kind of NYPD officer that you want to show up when you need help. Not just because shes got a badass vibranium arm, but because her sense of justice has been forged and tempered by her experience as a full-on superhero. Most city cops that you meet have a deep and abiding love for their cities and Misty does as well, but her perspective and understanding is immeasurably more expansive because of the life shes led away from the force.

Although the movies have recast Steve as a Brooklyn boy, in the comics, he grew up in Manhattanand although technically a good chuck of his life after becoming Captain America during the war saw him living outside the city (as a block of ice in the North Atlantic), when he returned to help found the Avengers, Steve found himself back in his beloved city soon enough, helping establish the teams first headquarters right on Fifth Avenue. His time as an Avenger has seen Steve travel the world, but as the superpowered face of American liberty, his heart will always been in New York.

Shame about the fascism, though. Points off for that.

Janet van Dyne doesnt get enough credit for the role that she played in helping the original Avengers become the team that they are today. Sure, Janets the one who came up with their name, but more importantly, she was the moral center of the team who helped it weather all manner of challenges that plagued them, be an attack from Ultron, or a family dispute from within the team. Even as her fellow Avengers dart all over the world, Janet still remains rooted in the city where it all began, starting her own businessand now looking after the next generation of the Wasp in the form of budding young scientist Nadia Pym.

Cloak and Daggers destinies were forged in New York, when the two runaways found each other and went through hell being forcefully put through a dangerous drug program that turned them into dark-and-light-powered superheroes. Since then, theyve fought back against citys illegal drug industry that gave them their powers, and otherwise teamed up with countless other heroes and teams in New York. This includes during Manhattans recent entrapment in the Darkforce Dimension in Secret Empire, throughout which Dagger painfully provided light to the city at the cost of nearly killing herself.

Sam Wilson grew up in Harlem, and a tragic upbringing in the borough that saw him lose both of his parents as a young man set him on a path that would ultimately see him collide with Steve Rogers and become his erstwhile companion, the Falcon. Years by Steves side ultimately lead Sam to take on the Captain America mantle himselfgranted by an ailing, super-serum-drained Steve after Sam nearly sacrificed himself saving New York from being destroyed by a bomb. Sam decided to differentiate himself from Steves career as Cap by being a more socially-minded hero, starting in his home city.

Jessica Jones always knew that being superhero was for the birds and, like her partner Luke Cage, understood the importance of being able to capitalize on her god-given skills in order to pay her bills. As a private detective, Jessicas used her powers to help the people of New York in immediate, appreciable ways that other heroes seldom do and thats a very big deal.

Sure, the folks up in Avengers Tower have saved the world countless times, but there comes a point at which the adventures of heroes kind of lose their meaning for regular people on the ground. If you asked a random person on the subway in Marvels 616 universe who Ultron was, theres a chance they might be aware of that robot the Avengers are always scrapping with. But if you were to check out Alias Investigations Yelp page, youd probably see countless posts from people who were once in desperate need of help that neither the authorities or most well-known capes bothered to take seriously. Thats what makes Jessica a hero in the truest sense of the word.

Lets say one day you suddenly developed superpowers after a freak chemical spill and decided to become a superhero. Lets say that rather than spending time learning how to control your newfound ability to lift incredible amounts of weight with your breath, you threw yourself into the fray, stopped a bunch of criminals, and accidentally caused millions of dollars in property damage that the city council decides to sue you for. You know whod have your back in court and probably be able to convince a jury to let you off with a warning and some community service? She-Hulk, thats who. For all of the good that Jennifer Walters has done as hero fighting alongside the Avengers, its her work as an NYC lawyer that really makes her stand out as one of Marvels most versatile and giving heroes.

Howard the Duck is every single oddball youve ever bumped into in New York, made eye contact with, and had an immediate and tacit understanding that youre both going through some shit. As a character, Howards whole schtick has always been about pulling back from the present events of ones life and taking the time to appreciate how incredibly weird life can be. Its an outlook on like that we could all stand to have more often than not and it makes him one of NYCs better, uh, duck… people… things.

Hells Kitchens perennial defender, Matt Murdock and his home neighborhood are deeply intertwined in a way so few other heroes can claim. They can say they protect a city, but Hells Kitchen is Daredevils turf, and the Marvelverse knows it. Sure, hes taken extended periods of time away from the city, most notably to live in San Francisco a few times, but eventually, Matt Murdock always returns to Hells Kitchen, whether its as a lawyer or as the man without fear.

Up until very recently, the entirety of New York City was trapped in the Darkforce dimension thanks to Hydras evil plan to divide and conquer the worlds heroes. Though there were many sacrifices made in an attempt to break through the Darkforce bubble and save millions of innocent people, none was quite as great as Dr. Stephen Strange offering to trade his New York brownstone to a demon in exchange for a powerful spell that almost managed to break through the barrier. Ultimately, it didnt work out and Strange kept his home, but his willingness to part with it in the first place is telling. Like many of Marvels other heavy hitters, Strange spends a sizable amount of time away from NYC as his duties require him to, but Stranges appreciation for the city, its people, and its real estate is admirable.

Remember when we said few heroes were so closely rooted to their home area like Daredevil is? Luke Cage is one of the few heroes who not only matches Matt, but trumps him. Lukes connection to Harlem and its people, starting from his life as an ex-con trying to blend in to its protector as the Power-Man, is a bond thats even stronger than his friendship with his fellow hero for hire, Danny Rand. In the Marvel universe, Luke is a symbol of Harlems spirit, a man whos willing to do anything to help its people, a community he has always been fiercely protective of.

Its hard to think of a more quintessentially New York hero than Peter Parker. From his early days in Forest Hills to today, where he runs his global megacorp from the Baxter Building itself, Peter Parker is rooted in the beating heart of New York City in a way almost no one else in Marvels vast pantheon of heroes ever has been, or really, ever will besomeone who knows it in and out like the back of his spandex-covered hand. In his entire superhero career hes barely ever lived outside of the city, and his goal as a hero has always been to protect the civilians that call it home. Spider-Man is far more comfortable on the streets of New York than he is in any other environment, even if hes mostly swinging above thembut he will always be New Yorks finest champion.

The cities were ranked based on treatment data from the metro areas where Orkin performed the most bedbug treatments from December1, 2015, to November30, 2016.

We have more people affected by bed bugs in the United States now than ever before, Orkin entomologist and director of technical services Ron Harrison said. They were virtually unheard of in the U.S. 10 years ago.

Orkin calls bed bugs hitchhikers thattravel from place to place.

Orkin officials think bedbugs have become prevalent because theyve built up a resistance to chemicals.

They also said you might not know you have bed bugs because many people dont have a physical reaction to the insects bites.

EXCLUSIVE: Howard Crabtrees When Pigs Fly, a campy, politically charged musical revue that was a two-year off-Broadway hit in the late 1990s, will be revived this fall with a Hollywood star on board, if not on the boards: Cher, Liza, Carol and Barbie favorite Bob Mackie will design the clothes for the show that was conceived by Crabtree and Mark Waldrop, with book and lyrics by Mark Waldrop and music by Dick Gallagher.

Im told that producer Joshua Goodman, whose Broadway credits include Come From Away and Rocky, will mount the revival at the Shubert Organizations Stage 42, with previews beginning October 6 and opening night set for October 30. Waldrop will direct, with choreography by Denis Jones (Holiday Inn).

When Pigs Fly company

The Mackie connection is a poignant one. The show stars a character named Howard (Jordan Ahnquist, Shear Madness), not unlike Crabtree, a former dancer and wardrobe designer who died of AIDS shortly before the show opened in 1996 at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre. In a hastily booked theater under renovation, Howard struggles to put on a lavish musical revue while facing down numerous obstacles, including the near-mutiny of his cast and the nagging memory of his high school guidance counselor, who told him hed succeed when pigs fly. Just when it seems all is lost, Howard realizes the problem isnt that hes gone too far its that he hasnt gone far enough.

The late New York Times critic Vincent Canby, a novelist and playwright who had given up his post as chief film critic and was reviewing theater during his final years at the paper, loved the show, calling it an exceptionally cheerful, militantly gay new musical revue that comes close to living up to its own billing, the side-splitting musical extravaganza. No sides are ever in serious danger of splitting. Yet theres enough hilarity, wit and outr humor here to evoke that era, more than 40 years ago, when bright, irreverent revues were as commonplace on Broadway as todays stately Cameron Mackintosh spectacles.

Crabtree had begun creating outlandish costumes for friends while working in the wardrobe department at Broadways original production of La Cage aux Folles, where he met cast member Waldrop, his future collaborator and director for several Off-Broadway musicals showcasing Crabtrees designs. Crabtree embraced Mackies aesthetic, equal parts glamour and whimsy, a staple of The Carol Burnett Show that earned him nine Emmys. Mackies last NYC venture was 2010s Viagara Falls, a flop that played this same theater.

Years before Conan and The Tonight Show, Madison Square Garden and an hourlong special on Comedy Central, Mark Normand performed at a handful of open mics in New Orleans with a small cadre of stand-up comics, driving to Baton Rouge and Lafayette for a few minutes of stage time.

“We’d drink, it was a community, a group of us who’d push each other and got all excited about new jokes, and it was scary and fun and new,” Normand says from his home in New York. “Back then it was like being a what’s something that’s really rare? Like a Mormon. It was like six of us.”

Normand returns to New Orleans to headline One Eyed Jacks Aug. 15.

His first hourlong special, Amy Schumer Presents: Mark Normand: Don’t Be Yourself, premiered earlier this year. Normand has toured and opened for Schumer for several years after she caught him at Comix in 2010.

“She saw my act, and I bombed, but one joke worked and she clinged on to that,” he says. “She gave me a gig it was a date in Atlanta. I was too scared. I didn’t know if I could do 30 minutes, I didn’t know who this girl is, I didn’t want to hang out with her, who the hell is she? So I turned it down. I lied and said my parents were coming into town. I was talking to her on the phone and she was like, ‘OK?’ I remember her being like, ‘What are you, an idiot?'”

Two weeks later, she called him back for a show at Hofstra University. They rode the train from the city and hit it off. “I later learned she said the reason she used me was she liked my stuff, I was low maintenance and I never tried to sleep with her,” he says. “All the bigthree.”

After a year performing standup around New Orleans, Normand moved to New York in 2007 with only a few hundred bucks, followed by a harrowing series of events he rattles off in one breath mugged three times, apartment got bedbugs, landlord died of complications from AIDS, all within Normand’s first few months in town. After begging his old film school for a job, they hired him as acustodian.

“It was brutal,” he says. “I was so desperate. My whole career was put together with gum and tape. … The city tries to chew you up and spit you out, and if I was a sane, normal human being I would’ve listened to it but I had nowhere else to go.”

Normand has appeared in the comic slot on several late-night TV shows and on Louis CK’s Horace and Pete and Schumer’s Comedy Central sketch series Inside Amy Schumer, among many gigs around the world, including institutions like Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theater. He’s also active on social media (@marknorm on Twitter, @marknormand on Instagram) and hosts a long-running podcast Tuesdays With Stories with comedian Joe List. But he still works material at open mics and intimate bar shows, including spots around New Orleans.

“One day you’re in Madison Square [Garden], Carnegie Hall, the Apollo Theater,” he says. “The next day you’ve got that new joke to try out and it bombs in front of six people at a bar with the Rangers game on.”

Onstage, Normand carefully builds up to taboo or collar-pulling topics, revealing his relatably awkward, sometimes-charming and admittedly gross behavior on the way there.

“I’m really trying to tell jokes about these horrible things and make light of them,” he says. “That’s my favorite kind of joke. At one point they are a new joke that’s not ready, so when it’s not funny yet you just look like an asshole holding a microphone. You have to go through that suffering and pain of people hating you and hope to God you find the funny in it. … It’s a long journey to get there, but if you get there, it’s worth it.”

We will need a combination of methods to control such pests if chemical treatment alone is not enough, he says, suggesting alternative methods like heat treatment, which involves increasing the temperature in a space to kill the bugs and its eggs.

Concurring about the low awareness among Malaysians, Tajudin laments that some Malaysians dont even know what bed bugs look like.

Malaysia should consider having regulations to certify places that are bed bug-free buildings, he says.

Tajudin also suggests that awareness programmes on bed bug infestations be held, similar to those for dengue fever and leptospirosis to increase public awareness and prevent infestations.

Major bed bug infestations were reported in several countries, including a courtroom in Kentucky, United States which had to be shut down last month. Just days after that, the Houses of Parliament in the United Kingdom were reported to be crawling with bed bugs and a pest control team was sent there to take urgent action.

In 2010, the Google office in New York was also found to be infested with the bugs.

Closer to home, a Singapore permanent resident, who took a bus from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore late last year, recounted on Facebook about her ordeal of being bitten by bed bugs.